The United Kingdom Youth Parliament (UKYP) gives the young people of the UK between the ages of 11 and 18 a voice. A voice heard and listened to by local and national government, providers of services for young people and other agencies with an interest in the views and needs of young people.

UKYP has over 400 elected members of youth parliament (MYPs) and deputy members (DMYPs) who represent young people throughout the UK and elections are going on right now. Amber and Sam explained the voting process to some of our girls and now some of our Y11 pupils are going to work with the rest of the school to make sure everyone gets a chance to vote.

Since Alfriston is in Beaconsfield, we are eligible to vote for candidates in Chiltern and South Bucks and we will be looking at the manifesto videos for those 3 candidates. However, our very own Laura Gonsalves is standing as a candidate in Wycombe and we really hope that she is elected even if we can’t vote for her!

If you have family or friends who go to school in the Wycombe area please tell them about Laura and hopefully they might decide to vote for her.

Having been one of the winners in the ‘Name a Gritter’ competition run by Transport for Buckinghamshire (tfb) back in 2011/12, we were offered the chance to have a gritter visit our school so that our pupils could see one of the vehicles that helps keeps our roads safe during the winter months.

So it was that “Alfie the Grit” arrived at Alfriston one wet afternoon this week. Three members of staff accomapnied the vehicle and they were pleased to talk to the girls about how the vehicle works and what they do. Several classes were able to look over the truck and check out inside the cab. The girls enjoyed this opportunity and Connie Sellers took a particular interest, asking lots of questions. She discovered that this sort of truck takes two years to make and costs £250 000.00! We also learned that Alfie is one of the newest shiniest trucks in the fleet and is deployed to clear major routes and motorways.

It is possible to follow the progress of the trucks on the tfb website and we were able to track Alfie leaving Beaconsfield on the interactive map. Next time the weather turns wintry, you could look to see where Alfie is working:

We arrived at 9.00 at Wycombe Abbey Children’s Centre and we had to sign in and take a name badge.

Soon the parents arrived and sat down to enjoy tea and toast and chat to each other. Their children went off happily to play with the toys that were out for them. We were just observing and learning about what goes on.

After a while we joined in with the children and we led activities like play dough and sticking and glueing. The children were lovely and we really enjoyed working with them. Some of them were a bit shy to begin with but they got used to us as the day went on. Others were excited to see us right from the start! One little boy, James, wanted us to play with his truck.

At lunchtime the parents and children went home and we spent some time clearing up all the mess. You can’t believe how much mess 16 little children can make!!! The play dough seemed to get everywhere. When it was all tidy, we sat down for lunch with the staff and got to know them a bit better.

Soon another group of parents arrived with babies this time- under 6 months. We chatted to the mums and played with the babies. They cried a lot and we tried our hardest to keep them happy and quiet.

A lady called Rachel led a session on how to calm the babies using music. This session was called Baby Beats. The music was on her ipod and it seemed quite effective as most of the babies went quiet. She also helped the parents to relax by focusing on positive thoughts. We found her ideas very interesting and useful.

When the mothers and babies had left we were able to talk to Rachel and help her tidy up. Before we left, we had a cup of tea with Debbie and Kate and Mel and wrote up our feedback for the day. We felt that it had been a really positive experience. Debbie and Kate were very complimentary to us and said we would be very welcome to come back for work experience.

We received a certificate and then it was time to go home and recover from our busy day!

The pupils who have chosen to take part will look round your home to see what appliances are left on even though they are not being used. They will identify which members of the household are responsible and monitor their actions over 5 days. They have a form to record their findings.

Hopefully parents and carers will get involved and ideally discuss what the family can do to save energy in the home. If you want to take it seriously you can create a family pledge on The Pod website to be in with a chance of winning a super prize.

If you are a driver you will know how difficult it is to spot the pedestrian who nips across the road in front of you dressed in dark colours from head to foot. Therefore the Student Council ran an assembly to raise awareness amongst pupils and staff. Pupils were encouraged to wear something bright on their coats or bags and staff were asked to drive carefully and keep an eye out for pedestrians and cyclists. Free reflective stickers were offered to pupils visiting the Student Council Shop.

More generally the campaign this year was focused on calling on everyone, but especially drivers, to tune in to road safety, to avoid the devastating crashes that are caused by multi-tasking.

A lot of us are pretty attached to our smartphones these days, so distraction is no longer just about making a call. We’ve entered a new era where being constantly connected is the norm and some people find it hard to switch off even for a minute. Driving is the most risky thing most of us do regularly. It’s highly unpredictable, so you need your head on the job. Yet it’s easy to forget the risks, and many drivers think they can get away with multi-tasking.

The truth is none of us are good at doing two things at once. It’s a proven fact that if you try to multi-task at the wheel you’re putting yourself and others in real danger.

So drivers, why not turn off your phones, or better still, stick them in the boot, and never attempt to do anything at the wheel other than the critical task at hand: DRIVING.

Yesterday, I went to Takeover Day at Bucks County Council offices in Aylesbury. It was giving us a chance to look at the roles in the youth service for the day. I was put forward for it by my youth worker, Ross.

I arrived at 10am and met the other four young people who were taking part. I was looking forward to the day. I met with my youth worker, Amber. She told me what was going to happen. I was going to be a young journalist. We were going to look at the Bucks youth council twitter feed. We were sending tweets and hash tags about the youth services. We looked at three websites, the county council website, the Berkshire young people’s website and the family help website and gave our opinions about them. It was very interesting as we all had different opinions.

Lunch was provided and was lovely. It gave me a chance to chat with the other four young people. After lunch I interviewed a disability commissions officer as a young journalist and I interviewed some other people who had different jobs in the service. I also interviewed Laura, who is quite senior in the service. It was very interesting, learning what they did. I loved the interviewing.

We had to choose 53 blogging ideas which we are going to blog about.

At the end of the day I filled out an AQA evaluation about the day. It was a fun day, as well as an interesting and useful learning experience, which gave me an insight into how other people think and how I will think in the future. I would thoroughly recommend it to other people.

What a wonderful fun day was had by Alfriston School Year 9 girls on Thursday 7 November 2013 at the South Bucks Special Schools Sports Association Tennis Festival at Halton Tennis Centre. Other attending schools were Penn School, Chiltern Gate, Wendover House and Maplewood School.

Morning sessions were indoors working on hand and eye co-ordination and during the afternoon outdoor session the main focus was on forearm. The aim was to give the children a positive experience of tennis and possibly draw more children into the sport and see more children taking it up regularly. Each participant will receive a certificate from the Centre. Some of our girls already join our Tennis Club which is held after school on Wednesdays. The girls were all very excited, and some a little nervous at first but determined to enjoy the challenge. Quote from one student was “it was the best day ever”!

If your children or teenagers are planning to go out trick or treating, the advice is to remind them to behave considerately. Trick or treating can be lots of fun, but it is not an excuse for irresponsible or antisocial behaviour. Tricks like throwing flour and eggs, graffiti, or other vandalism can be treated as criminal damage and the police will prosecute anyone found breaking the law.

Should you be affected by the few individuals who use trick or treating as an excuse to commit crime or antisocial behaviour, you can report it by contacting Thames Valley Police on 101. In an emergency, or if a crime is in progress, call 999.

We are pleased to announce that we are now part of vInspired Schools, an exclusive programme which rewards our students for the time they spend volunteering. Girls in years 10 and 11 have already been briefed on this and have registered on the site. It will be highlighted to other girls after the half term break.

This programme brings with it a wide range of benefits for our students including:

Great experiences to include on UCAS/job applications and personal statements

Year 8 girls from Alfriston recently took part in a ‘Tag Rugby Festival’ at Aylesbury Rugby Club.
When they arrived at the Rugby Club they received a warm welcome from the event organiser Tim Holmes, Rugby Development Officer from the RFU, as well as the team of coaches from Bucks New University. There was expert coaching and then matches were played on a rotational basis, (in teams of 7) playing against other schools in the area, which included Penn and Wendover.
All the girls who took part were excellent team players. They gave their all to sidestep players from the opposing teams, trying to keep their 2 coloured tags on their belts. Some showed that they were a ‘dab hand’ at taking the opposing teams tags and many made numerous dashes for the winning line!

All girls received a certificate for their participation in this exciting, fast-moving, fun event!